‘Shaving the rubbish’ off his newly acquired 1962 third generation Ford Thunderbird was just the start for Alistair Davidson, as he describes the restoration to Mild Kustom.
Tracey Island rather stole Ford’s thunder in the 1960s, but special appearances such as the 1961 Indy 500 (where the Thunderbird was on pace car duties), regular NASCAR campaigns from the late 1970s onwards (including a record breaking run at Talledega Raceway with Bill Elliott in 1987), and John F Kennedy’s inaugural parade helped the Thunderbird stay in production for over 40 years. We’ll skip past that 2002-05 ‘rebirth’.
Kiwi Alistair Davidson didn’t realise when he started his rebuild of a 1962 third generation Thunderbird just how much of a job he was undertaking. True the bodyshell looked good as a base, but it was only when the paint had been shaved to the bone that this ‘quick fix’ became an 18-month endurance, to say nothing of the difficulty in perfecting the suede green finish or the air ride suspension
A Mild Kustom can sometimes be anything but.
Source – Hot Rod Revue. Hat tip to Cal Thorley
